Department of Health Services Administration, China Medical University, 91, Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2013 Nov 16;13:127. doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-13-127.
Medication adherence is critical for patient treatment. This study involved evaluating how implementing Short Message Service (SMS) reminders affected patient medication adherence and related factors.
We used a structured questionnaire to survey outpatients at three medical centers. Patients aged 20 years and older who were prescribed more than 7 days of a prescription medication were randomized into SMS intervention or control groups. The intervention group received daily messages reminding them of aspects regarding taking their medication; the control group received no messages. A phone follow-up was performed to assess outcomes after 8 days. Data were collected from 763 participants in the intervention group and 435 participants in the control group.
After participants in the intervention group received SMS reminders to take medication or those in the control group received no messages, incidences of delayed doses were decreased by 46.4 and 78.8% for those in the control and intervention groups, respectively. The rate of missed doses was decreased by 90.1% for participants in the intervention group and 61.1% for those in the control group. We applied logistic regression analysis and determined that participants in the intervention group had a 3.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in delayed doses compared with participants in the control group. Participants in the intervention group also showed a 2.2-fold higher probability of having a decrease in missed doses compared with participants in the control group.
Use of SMS significantly affected the rates of taking medicine on schedule. Therefore, daily SMS could be useful for reminding patients to take their medicine on schedule.
用药依从性对患者治疗至关重要。本研究旨在评估实施短信提醒对患者用药依从性及相关因素的影响。
我们采用结构化问卷对三家医疗中心的门诊患者进行调查。将年龄≥20 岁、服用处方药物超过 7 天的患者随机分为短信干预组和对照组。干预组每天收到服药提醒短信，对照组不接受任何短信。在 8 天后通过电话随访评估结果。共纳入 763 例干预组和 435 例对照组患者。
干预组患者收到短信提醒按时服药，或对照组患者未收到短信，对照组和干预组的延迟服药发生率分别降低了 46.4%和 78.8%。漏服发生率分别降低了 90.1%和 61.1%。我们应用 logistic 回归分析发现，与对照组相比，干预组患者延迟服药的概率降低了 3.2 倍。与对照组相比，干预组患者漏服的概率降低了 2.2 倍。
短信提醒显著影响患者按时服药的比例。因此，每天发送短信提醒可能有助于患者按时服药。
